What's going on? For today's review, we are checking out Leonardo from the NECA Pizza Club series. What is the Pizza Club you may ask? The pizza club is N.E.C.A.'s take on the old Burger King Kids Club that back in the 90s gave out video tapes of TMNT cartoon episodes. The boxes for these figures is made to look like the old Burger King Kids Club boxes. The National Entertainment Collectibles Association or N.E.C.A. is an American manufacturer of collectibles typically licensed from films, video games, sports, music, and television that are based in New Jersey. The company was founded in 1996 and has over 60 licenses for which it produces products.
PACKAGING:
Before we open this up, let's check out the packaging.
Our new Leo figure comes in a rectangle-style blue box, all the box colors in this line are based on the Turtles bandana colors. The front of the box has the Pizza Club logo, made to look like the old Burger King Kids Club logo that was on the VHS tapes. In the middle we have a picture of Leo, below him we have the Turtles log along with the "title" of this figure, Leonardo Leads, taken from the cartoon theme song. The very bottom has the NECA logo done up to look like the F.H.E. logo. FHE or For Home Entertainment was the company that produced just about all the TMNT VHS tapes back in the day. Turning the box to the side we have the Nick and NECA logos, the TMNT logo, and the title of the figure again. The back of the box has a star bust that lets you know you need to collect them all. In the middle of the box, we have a write-up. The bottom has some action poses of Leo. Turning the box around to the right side it is the same as the left side. Moving back to the front of the box, there is a flap that opens up, when you open it you get a nice action shot of Leo on the left, while on the right you get to see the figure displayed with all his accessories.
INSIDE OF THE BOX:
Let's take a look at how the figure comes packed inside.
Taking Leo out of the box we can see he has been secured nicely in his plastic prison. The back slipcover inside the box is just a sewer drain from the home base.
OUTSIDE OF THE BOX:
Let's open the box and take a closer look at the figure.
Taking our new Leo out of the box we can see that he does look just like the older one we got, just with a new head and new paint. This Leo still has the cell shading done on the back of the figure as well.
ACCESSORIES:
Let's see what kind of accessories the figure comes with.
Leo comes with 2 Katana swords, left and right open pointing hands, a pepperoni & marshmallow pizza, a book, a VHS tape, binoculars, the warrior statue, Zipp, and an evil robot clone head from the episode "Combatland," The fun part about the new heads is that you can swap out the bottoms so you can change the facial expressions.
ARTICULATION:
How can we pose the figure? Let's find out!
Leonardo's articulation includes the following:
HINGED BALL HEAD/NECK - allows you to swivel the head 360 degrees and tilt the head back and forth.
BALL-HINGED SHOULDERS - These give the arm 360-degree rotation and also the ability to raise and lower the arm.
UPPER BICEP SWIVEL - This cut lets you turn the whole arm below the cut 360 degrees.
SINGLE JOINTED ELBOWS - this gets you just about a 90-degree bend.
SWIVEL HINGE WRISTS - allows you to turn his wrists in a full 360-degree circle while also bending them up and down.
BALL JOINTED LEGS - This allows the legs to move out to the side along with some front and back motion.
UPPER THIGH SWIVEL - the leg can rotate around a full 360 degrees.
DOUBLE JOINTED KNEES - joint allows you to bend the leg itself back to the butt of the figure.
ANKLE SWIVELS - The ankle swivel lets you turn them 360 degrees.
SIZE COMPARISON:
How does the size of this figure compare to others?
Our new Leo stands right at 5.5 inches. He is our new Leo standing next to N.E.C.A.'s first Leo figure, we looked at him a few years ago, and Leo from the Loyal Subjects. Next, we have Leo standing next to some other Leos, The Loyal Subjects IDW Leo, Leo from the Turtles of Greyskull line, and our N.E.C.A. Jim Lawson Leo.
RATING:
What are Baby Huey's scores for the figure?
PAINT JOB 5/5 - The paint job is good, I love how this one has an overall brighter color than the older Leo.
FIGURE SCULPT 4/5 - The sculpt of the figure is fine, but at this point, it has been used over and over again, It is time to retire this body and make a new one for the Turtles, one that has a little bit more range in the articulation department.
POSING 4/5 - You can get him into some good poses, however, it's the same poses from 5 years ago, it's time for a new updated body.
ACCESSORIES: 5/5 - I can't think of anything else to add, Leo is packed with some good stuff
DURABILITY 5/5 - The plastic has gotten so much better over the years before you would be scared of snapping something when moving the joints, I can't say I have that fear anymore with N.E.C.A.
OVERALL SCORE 4.6/5 - This is a good Leo figure, If you have the first release or any of the other ones that have been released over the last few years then you might not need this one, if you don't and are just getting into this Turtle line then go for it, go get all 4.
RETAIL COST: $36.99
I PICKED MINE UP AT TARGET
TIME FOR SOME TOYING AROUND!
